Mrs. Forst's Pre-Kindergarten Blog

Responsibility? What’s that?

We are already half-way through the year, and it is time to start preparing our children for Kindergarten. While we have been working all year on rules, routines, and learning of all sorts, we are now beginning to focus on creating capable and responsible students. This involves giving the students small, age appropriate responsibilities or tasks to complete on their own. These tasks include:

Buttoning/zippering their own coats

Putting away their own backpacks/coats/lunch boxes in the morning

Dressing themselves in winter gear when going outside

Getting themselves started/pumping on the swings

Opening containers at lunch time

Use hand-held vacuum to pick up crumbs

Put away toys before moving to a new center

We ask the children to try and accomplish the tasks on their own before asking for help. In case a child is struggling with the task at hand, we are also teaching students several respectful ways that they can ask for help. This includes using polite language that always incorporates a “please” and a “thank you”. If a child forgets to use respectful language, we ask the students to “try again”. The students understand that this means they must reword their request in order to get the help they desire. Telling, yelling, and grunting are not acceptable forms of requesting help and will not be acknowledged.

We are asking parents to please support our cause and expect the same responsibilities of their children while at home. If you feel that your child is already able to do the majority of these items by themselves, you can implement age appropriate chores for your child to work on while at home in addition to these tasks. These include:

Put toys away

Dress themselves

Fill pet’s food dish

Put clothes in hamper

Wipe up spills

Dust

Pile books and magazines

Make their bed

Empty wastebaskets

Bring in mail or newspaper, if close to the house

Clear table

Pull weeds, if you have a garden

Water flowers

Unload utensils from dishwasher

Wash plastic dishes at sink

Fix bowl of cereal

Buckle seat belt or harness

Do not feel the need to tackle all these chores at once, but implement two or three at a time. Make sure you demonstrate how you would like the child to complete each task, step by step. The more specific you are, the more likely the child will understand exactly what/how/when the chore needs to be done. Don’t forget to praise your child when they are working on their chore! It may not turn out perfectly, but it is proof that your child is trying to be a responsible person. Before you know it, you will have a capable, responsible Kindergartener on your hands!